IOSG Founder's Reflections on 2049: Many teams are running out of funds

Author | IOSG Founder, Jocy

Editorial | WuBlockchain

My nth time attending the founders’ perspective at 2049

This industry is still growing, and this year I have attended various events such as ETHDenver, ETHCC, Black Mountain Zuzalu, Edcon, and so on. At 2049, I still met many old friends. Each such conference in the industry attracts a lot of attendees. Many companies set a budget for such conferences. Hence, with the growth of the industry, even in a bear market, the number of participants continues to rise. LPs continuously support early VCs in the industry, VCs continue to support the founding teams of emerging tracks, and teams continue to expand and grow. Everything seems to be moving in a better direction.

However, the reality is different. For many teams, 2049 is their last hope for financing. If the bear market does not end, it might be their last brand exposure. Because of their expansion in the past two years, most of the early teams have almost run out of runway. Some teams have a very high burn rate and only have 5–10 months left in such a market. Some even bought expensive tickets/sponsorship booths at 2049 to pitch more potential investors.

I also attended an exclusive event hosted by the Medici family. With a scale of 120 people, about half of them are VCs. Among these 60 VCs, about 90% are fundraising. Due to regulatory pressure in the US, fund financing has become very difficult. Relying on their brand and influence, they believe that Chinese LPs in Asia will be more generous in supporting them. However, the reality is different from the bustling scene of the 2049 event. Most Crypto-oriented LPs are more frugal due to the bear market, and traditional LPs are skeptical about the value and use cases of this industry. Therefore, it is unrealistic to expect to meet suitable VC/LP for financing at a conference. It is clear that the bear market will continue for some time. This is a test of the adaptability, patience, and resilience of the founding team. Just like the last bear market cycle, many founders endured until March 2020. When they saw Bitcoin at $3,000, many lost hope, disbanded their teams, and abandoned their projects. Of course, three months later, the DeFi Summer broke out, the crypto industry was reborn, and many industry practitioners saw an unprecedented dawn.

Different from previous years, 2049 is no longer so commercial. VCs and founders from all over the world are invited to participate in different side events. During this week in Singapore, apart from F1 spectators, there are crypto practitioners. My habit is to arrange some catch-up coffee chats with founders we have invested in in the past during the day and attend interesting events and catch up with old friends in the evening (usually sleeping at 1 am and getting up at 7/8 am to attend meetings). From IOSG’s perspective, our direction this year and our strategy in the past two years have been to provide a professional academic stage to help the portfolio go to market, allowing more industry practitioners to discover them, recognize them, and intersect with them. Academics and socializing do not conflict. We usually separate them into two areas. Those who like to study can take notes quietly in the internal lecture area, listen to various presentations and panel discussions, and those who like to socialize can continuously rotate and join OFR’s thousands of old friends to exchange TG and chat.

Actually, focusing on new topics at 2049 is a bit strange because builders/Dev rarely come to such conferences. This provides more of a capital docking stage. Capital can promote industry progress. We can see the military competition with a valuation of 2 billion US dollars in the L2 track. ZkEVM, with hundreds of millions of cash in hand, is making rapid technological advances, constantly spending money on recruiting, main network, and application ecosystem competition. Even in a bear market, they can still attract better talents. We have already invited more than 20 relevant founders to share in the AI track at the French ECC IOSG OFR two months ago. This track has long become a radical track for most US crypto funds. Modular labs received more than 14 TS in the bear market. Gensyn has a valuation of over 400 million, and ChainML has completed two rounds of financing in less than six months. If you look back at OFR’s event theme this year, we revolve around protocol security audit/ZKML and Generative AI direction/LSD and Modular track. Of course, at the upcoming DevConnect in Turkey, we will invite founders of applications and FOG. Currently, applications on L2 have become the inevitable trend of industry innovation. We are looking forward to these best founders to continue to solve the industry’s application problems.

I accidentally wrote too much, but I believe that friends who need to read this kind of summary are mostly wanderers. Because most practitioners will join the industry, I suggest that friends who are still reading this article treat the next event as a tour, go and feel the native power of the development community, find the bright and hot places in the industry, create them, and not just wait for the next bull market.

Jocy@IOSGVC

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